Este returns to where it all began

7 March 2014 10:28am

By Kate Rowan

This weekend's encounter in the Aviva Stadium between Ireland and Italy Women will be something of a homecoming for Italian flanker Michela Este as it was in Dublin where she first discovered and fell in love with rugby.

In 2007 Este spent a year on an academic exchange studying economics and business studies in University College Dublin (UCD).

Before then rugby was far from her thoughts in her hometown of Brescia in Northern Italy. With a chuckle she says, "I started to play rugby in Ireland. Before then I didn't have a clue that there was such a sport!"

She explains how a fellow exchange student had introduced her to rugby. She said: "When I was spending a year on the Erasmus project and was attending UCD, a friend of mine, a French girl was playing for UCD. So, she brought me training and I have stayed playing ever since. When, I started to play in Dublin, I felt like I was at home.

"I felt rugby suited me perfectly. I feel like I had found what I was looking for. I had tried a lot of other sports such as football and volleyball but then when I was on the rugby pitch in UCD for the first time, I felt like I had found my place."

Speaking of Italy Women's current squad she is frank about their strengths and weaknesses, she says; "I think us being such a close group is the big plus of our team. We may not have the skills or the depth in our team compared to the others but we are close friends and play for each other."

The blindside sheds light on some cultural aspects that help the squad to bond, adding: "We have a special room called the camera café. The word camera is the Italian for room and café as in drinking a coffee.

"It is where we go to chat, to listen to music and to listen to each other, it is the room where everybody can talk, if you have a problem you can just talk with the other girls and we all just try to help each other no matter the problem. You can say that the spirit of the camera café is our big plus point as a team."

With laughter Este tells of one ingredient that always makes touring run more smoothly. She said: "we always bring our own coffee with us from Italy when we travel because when we go abroad, we must have Italian coffee - coffee in the other countries is not as good as home, so we really miss it!"

To date the Benetton Treviso player has been capped 33 times for Italy. She is currently studying for a master's degree in economics.

So far this year's Six Nations campaign has been one of the more successful in the history of Italy Women with wins so far over Wales and Scotland and one loss against the yet to be beaten French.

Este believes this success will help grow the women's game in Italy, adding: "It is still not that popular. But also as the national team starts to win more games, it is getting more popular. I would not say women's rugby is famous here yet!"

She continues, outlining the regional differences, "women's rugby is played more in northern Italy and particularly in Veneto. We now have a lot of young girls from 12 years old playing.

"It is a lot less popular in the south, it is still a matter of trying to get more people involved in the south of Italy. But we played our last match, the match against Scotland in the south, it was good because 1,000 people came to watch and what was really good was that most of them were young girls."

The next ground that Este and her teammates will do battle in will have a very different ambiance. The excitement and determination is audible in her voice when she says: "we now have to play Ireland at the Aviva. It is a new thing, a whole new experience to play in a stadium like that. We are really excited about the match and cannot wait.

"We are trying to achieve our best Six Nations ever. We know that teams like Ireland and England are another step ahead but we have this feeling of excitement and the belief that we will do everything we can against them, to not just play good matches against Ireland and England but to win."

Playing in the city, where Este first picked up an oval ball certainly has a special significance, "We have played in the Millennium Stadium and some of the other girls have played in Twickenham," she said. "But for me, playing at the Aviva is the best thing that could happen for me because I started playing rugby in Dublin, yet I have never been to that stadium. Ireland is a very special place for me.

"Two years ago some of the girls I had played with in UCD came to see me play against Ireland, it was very nice for me as they were all wearing Italy t-shirts I had given them! It would be great if some of them could come to the game in the Aviva, that would mean a lot."

It would seem Este's rugby journey has taken her from Dublin to Italy and back again.

England Under-18s head coach John Fletcher claims some of his young troops will have to pinch themselves after defending their Justin Bridou Trophy at the FIRA-AER European Championships against France.